How-To Guides

Firefox 3.6 Windows 7 Integration: Aero Peek Tab Preview

Firefox 3.6 has some really awesome features and the Windows 7 integration is perfect, but there are a lot of hidden features in 3.6 that could help you to get more out of Firefox 3.6 and Windows 7.

Let’s enable CTRL + Tab Preview, support for Windows 7 AeroPeek and the new “List all tabs” feature.

This guide will teach you how to enable the new features in Firefox 3.6. The new features are really useful and make me one of the biggest Firefox fanboys again (I was almost getting used to Opera!). Finally, there is a way to preview tabs in Firefox properly, but they also updated Firefox to make it work with Windows 7 AeroPeek, so that you can preview ALL tabs right on your taskbar via AeroPeek!

Firs of all, let’s take a look, what it’s going to look like:

Firefox 3.6 Enhanced Tab Preview via CTRL+Tab

You can quickly switch between all opened tabs in Firefox 3.6 and get a decent preview of all open tabs. It was possible to switch between tabs via the shortcut CTRL + Tab before, but in 3.6 you actually get a decent preview.

Firefox 3.6: List all tabs feature!

Ok, so switching between tabs can become annoying because you have to use shortcuts and hold down the keys until you found the tab you want to open. Now, you can add a button to Firefox to open a preview of all tabs similar to the CTRL + Tab preview. The shortcut for this new feature is CTRL + Shift + Tab.

Firefox 3.6 AeroPeek for Firefox Tabs

Normally, Firefox would allow you to preview all Firefox Windows on your Windows 7 taskbar. If you wanted to get a preview of a tab inside Firefox, you first would have to switch to the opened Firefox window and then to the tab within Firefox. No more!

Firefox is now fully integrated into Windows 7 and fully supports the Windows 7 jumplist and AeroPeek:

How to switch between tabs and add “list all tabs” button?

Let’s enable the new features. This is the detailed guide, above you will find shorter instructions for advanced Firefox users. I do NOT understand why Mozilla does not enable those cool features by default. The tab preview is a perfect integration into Windows 7.

1. Step Enter “about:config” into the address bar of Firefox.

2. Step Enter browser.ctrlTab.previews into the filter address bar:

3. Step Double-click on it to enable the option “CTRL + Tab Preview”.

4. [List all Tabs] Repeat the steps 1-3, but this time enter browser.allTabs.previews into the filter address bar to enable the “list all tabs” button.

5. [AeroPeek] Repeat the steps 1-3, but this time enterbrowser.taskbar.previews.enable into the filter address bar to enable the “list all tabs” button.

Written by:Oliver Krautscheid Oliver is the founder and lead editor of this site. He is interested in finding new ways to break Windows, find common errors and help others to fix them. Aside from that, he loves to fully customize systems with Rainmeter and Dreamscene, find out more about ancient civilizations like the Chachapoya, sharpen his digital photography skills and create software with a small group of selected developers. If you would like to connect with him to discuss anything, send him a mail!